Need advice on accepting e-donations (tragedy inside)

[lowendgenerator]

My dear friend Nate Van Dyke suffered a tragic loss today. He lost everything he owned in a house fire. He's a musician, as well as a sound design student at TriBeCa Flashpoint. All of his belongings, his band gear, as well as his home studio is gone. Tens of thousands of project hours, gone. His recording studio was his main source of pleasure AND income. I'm absolutely crushed.

In addition to the immediate needs, like clothes and shelter, I want to set up a fund to help get him back on his feet. I am looking to collect donations via the internet, but from what I read, PayPal requires that I be a bona-fide not for profit to use their services.

Anyone know of a work-around for this that WON'T get seized by Paypal, or perhaps another website I can trust?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

My condolences.

Unfortunately I have no experience about internet based donations.

Regads
Sam

[Munjibunga]

Sorry to hear about your friend's terrible tragedy. I don't think you'll be able to involve TB in your fund. Sometimes you can set up a fund account at a bank. I strongly suggest you make the funds directly payable to that account, and have a trustee (maybe yourself) accountable for the handling of the fund. I suspect a lot of people in these parts will be wary of contributing to such a fund again. Accountability is the name of the game.

[lowendgenerator]

Thanks guys. I'm not looking for TB to participate in the donations, just looking for advice on how to set it up properly. I hear Paypal likes to freeze accounts and be all-around douchebags when it comes to things like this, and I'd like to avoid that.

Thanks for the info about setting up a fund account. Going to call my bank in the morning and get the ball rolling on that.

[lunarpollen]

There is an alternate way that I heard about recently... Let me try and find it....

[lunarpollen]

Damn it, not having any luck yet... I know I've seen a couple comments in friends' Facebook pasts in recent weeks about it...

[lowendgenerator]

I found this...this story to be rather disturbing. Paypal locking up accounts and basically calling the author a crook. It had a happy ending, with Paypal making a gracious donation and issuing an apology. Still makes me wary of using them.

[Selta]

You could always try to setup a Kickstart page - Kickstarter.
House fires are terrible. I also lost everything in one about 5 years ago now. My condolences to your friend.

[MakiSupaStar]

DON'T USE PAY PAL!

I recently set up a small quick charity for the earthquake/tsunami relief effort and PayPal locked my account. They kept telling me not to worry, it can receive money, I just can't take it out. They wanted me to prove IRS filing status of a charity. I told them that this is not a thing I plan on doing for long, I plan on donating 100% to Japanese Red Cross, or a local Japanese charity. They asked me for the information 2-3 times, and I finally said ok, if you don't believe me just Paypal the money to them directly. Allow me one transaction, or they could do it themselves. Months went by. I told people to stop donating and directly to the charities themselves. Well about two weeks ago they said that it's unfrozen and that I can withdraw. Right before I was going to Japan, oddly enough. I was literally in the airport about to leave when I saw the email. So my wife and I figure we'll take care of it when we get back. So about a week ago, I check on it. Frozen again. I sent a letter asking for an explanation and they said I didn't respond so they froze it again. So here we go again. This is where we are now. Unable, once again to send it over there. So moral of the story, DON'T USE PAYPAL. Hopefully they unfreeze it and I can get the money out there by the holidays. I understand why they do it, but this is ridiculous.

[lowendgenerator]

Originally Posted by Ray Salamon

You could always try to setup a Kickstart page - Kickstarter.
House fires are terrible. I also lost everything in one about 5 years ago now. My condolences to your friend.

I don't think I'm gonna pursue Kickstarter. Their "all or nothing" style of fundraising doesn't really apply to what I'm trying to do. "Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires or no money changes hands."

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

DON'T USE PAY PAL!

I recently set up a small quick charity for the earthquake/tsunami relief effort and PayPal locked my account. They kept telling me not to worry, it can receive money, I just can't take it out. They wanted me to prove IRS filing status of a charity. I told them that this is not a thing I plan on doing for long, I plan on donating 100% to Japanese Red Cross, or a local Japanese charity. They asked me for the information 2-3 times, and I finally said ok, if you don't believe me just Paypal the money to them directly. Allow me one transaction, or they could do it themselves. Months went by. I told people to stop donating and directly to the charities themselves. Well about two weeks ago they said that it's unfrozen and that I can withdraw. Right before I was going to Japan, oddly enough. I was literally in the airport about to leave when I saw the email. So my wife and I figure we'll take care of it when we get back. So about a week ago, I check on it. Frozen again. I sent a letter asking for an explanation and they said I didn't respond so they froze it again. So here we go again. This is where we are now. Unable, once again to send it over there. So moral of the story, DON'T USE PAYPAL. Hopefully they unfreeze it and I can get the money out there by the holidays. I understand why they do it, but this is ridiculous.

It's BS like this Paypal.... In an ideal world, Paypal would STF up, collect whatever fees they can, and stop being such meddling fools. Their format is perfect for grassroots fundraisers and small donations.

Alas, we live in a far from ideal world.

[Selta]

Originally Posted by lowendgenerator

I don't think I'm gonna pursue Kickstarter. Their "all or nothing" style of fundraising doesn't really apply to what I'm trying to do. "Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires or no money changes hands."

There's a couple of really easy ways around that...
1) Set a really low "goal", noting somewhere in your blurb that it's that low just to make sure that you get something and not nothing.
2) Set the goal at whatever it is you "need", and if it looks like you're not going to make it, just "donate" the difference - basically pay yourself.

[lowendgenerator]

Originally Posted by Ray Salamon

There's a couple of really easy ways around that...
1) Set a really low "goal", noting somewhere in your blurb that it's that low just to make sure that you get something and not nothing.
2) Set the goal at whatever it is you "need", and if it looks like you're not going to make it, just "donate" the difference - basically pay yourself.

Ahhh I see. Can I sandbag it, or once I hit the goal does it end? Say, if I set the goal at $500, and hit it, can I keep going, or does it end?

[Selta]

Originally Posted by lowendgenerator

Ahhh I see. Can I sandbag it, or once I hit the goal does it end? Say, if I set the goal at $500, and hit it, can I keep going, or does it end?

It keeps going for the full duration. I think you can end it early if you want to as well.

[runmikeyrun]

I also vote for setting up a separate account, but have him do it. If it's in his name people will be more likely to donate because they won't be wary of a "friend" taking the money.

also use resources like United Way, Salvation Army, food bank, churches, etc to get essentials like clothes and stuff until he gets back on his feet. Also do a search for local organizations that may be able to provide assistance (even cash) sometimes there are grant funded organizations that can help. The Fire Department may know of some.

That is just horrible... I feel really bad for the guy...

EDIT: Once the fund is set up you may be able to get the local news, radio or paper to give you a little publicity. They love to cover human tragedy, especially around the holidays.

[MatticusMania]

Hopefully your friends place was insured...

[lowendgenerator]

Originally Posted by runmikeyrun

I also vote for setting up a separate account, but have him do it. If it's in his name people will be more likely to donate because they won't be wary of a "friend" taking the money.

also use resources like United Way, Salvation Army, food bank, churches, etc to get essentials like clothes and stuff until he gets back on his feet. Also do a search for local organizations that may be able to provide assistance (even cash) sometimes there are grant funded organizations that can help. The Fire Department may know of some.

That is just horrible... I feel really bad for the guy...

EDIT: Once the fund is set up you may be able to get the local news, radio or paper to give you a little publicity. They love to cover human tragedy, especially around the holidays.

From what I have gathered so far, he's going to stay with his mother, so he's gonna be warm and fed. We have an incredible network of friends who are donating clothes and furniture. The biggest loss is the gear though. He had a full pro-tools rig, several instruments, mics etc. He was in the middle of recording his band, and most of their gear also perished. My hope is to raise enough money to help him replace his recording rig, which he needs to continue his studies as a sound designer/audio engineer.

Everything will be set up in his name, to keep it drama free.

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

Hopefully your friends place was insured...

I don't know what the insurance situation is, but I know that stuff can sometimes take months to get paid.

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by lowendgenerator

I don't know what the insurance situation is, but I know that stuff can sometimes take months to get paid.

Thats true. And I would assume any receipts he has were also lost in the fire. My sisters house was broken into last week, presumably by some younger kids because all they took was an Xbox 360, a Wii, a bunch of DVDs and some airsoft guns. The insurance said theyd fully reimburse anything that they had receipts for, and would pay them half the cost of anything missing without receipts.

Hopefully things work out well for your friend.

[lowendgenerator]

Update: Submitted a proposal to kickstarter as "Help (band name) record their next album!" I mentioned the studio killing house fire, but made the jist of the proposal about recording their new material.

Fingers crossed.

[lowendgenerator]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

Thats true. And I would assume any receipts he has were also lost in the fire. My sisters house was broken into last week, presumably by some younger kids because all they took was an Xbox 360, a Wii, a bunch of DVDs and some airsoft guns. The insurance said theyd fully reimburse anything that they had receipts for, and would pay them half the cost of anything missing without receipts.

Hopefully things work out well for your friend.

Thanks Matticus. He needs all of the good vibes and positive karma he can get. Did I mention he named his studio "Lady Luck"?

[Waffles and Scotch]

Man, that's rough. My condolences for your friend.

Have you thought about hosting a fundraising concert at a local venue?